Google Lens Standalone Shortcut App Released in The Play Store

If you like Google Lens but hate the fact that you have to open up Google Assistant on your phone to get to it, then today’s your lucky day. Google has just dropped a Google Lens standalone app in the Play Store that you can download.

By all indications, this is a shortcut app. That means it simply opens up Lens on your phone by pressing the icon for the app instead of having to long press your Home button the tap the Lens icon within Google Assistant. There is nothing new or special that the app does itself.

Personally, I like this idea. I don’t mind opening up Assistant to get to Google Lens but I could see where having this on my Home screen would prompt me to use Lens more than I do today.

Lens has gotten a lot of updates in the past few weeks, including real time information options as you use it. You can also select and copy text that you point Lens at and add that to other files as needed.

So do you need this app if you have Assistant with access to Lens today? No. But if you want to make it a bit easier to get to and use in your day to day.